Planting under a tree

Hi there. I'm new to this site and I was thrilled to find it. Hopefully members can help me with this problem.

I have a tree in my back yard beside my patio. It has shallow roots, which makes it pretty difficult (nearly impossible!) to plant near/under it - which I would like to do to improve the look and keep the existing soil from further eroding. The base of the tree has formed a sloping mound, which makes it difficult to keep mulch around it (my initial solution). I have placed a makeshift border of bricks at the line of patio to keep the soil/mulch in place, but after a heavy rain, the result is a build up of both on the tree side of the bricks.

I would like to plant some groundcover, yet I don't even think I could dig holes deep enough. I was thinking of building up the soil around the base of the tree so that I can plant the ground cover, and hopefully before too long, the plants will keep the new soil in place.

Does this sound like a reasonable solution? Also, is it detrimental to the tree for me to plant the groundcover right around the trunk?

Thanks. MC

PS My dog, who loves to play on that little hill around the tree, may be upset with my plan. Perhaps I'll leave a little spot bare for her. :-)

A lot of trees don't like to have soil piled up over their roots, especially close to the trunk, so unless all you're doing is replacing soil that was already there and washed away in the rain I wouldn't recommend that. If you buy flats of groundcover, you don't need to dig very big holes so that would be one approach, or if you can't even dig holes big enough for that, then you could maybe consider starting the groundcover from seed instead.

Also, do you have a picture you can post of the tree? I'm confused by why you have so much problems with mulch and soil sliding down what doesn't sound to me like a very steep slope, I have huge hills in my yard with a pretty steep slope and don't have problems with that so a little mound around a tree shouldn't be a big deal.

Well, unfortunately, the mound is a problem when it rains. (I wouldn't have posted otherwise. :-)

I'd say it's probably about a 45 degree angle (just a guess) and the rain just takes all the mulch down the slope onto my patio. I think i've been successful in posting a picture. Hopefully you can see all the small roots. MC

here's the pic

I wonder if you made the row of bricks a little higher maybe that would help with the mulch washing down? You could stack a few bricks on top of each other, or else get some of those concrete blocks used for making retaining walls and put a row of those down. Also, what kind of mulch are you using? If you try the finer stuff (I've heard it referred to as "gorilla hair") instead of bark chips it might stay in place a little better.

Because you can see all those small roots, it looks to me like there's been enough soil washed down in the rain that you could probably put a little bit back without damaging the tree's roots, but I would only put a really thin layer so it may not be enough to make it easier to plant, seeds may still be your best bet to get the groundcover going.

Thanks for the suggestion. My goal is actually to get rid of the bricks eventually, so that's why I was hoping to plant ground cover that would be more effective than the mulch. I guess my biggest concern was putting enough soil back to allow me to plant there, and then whether the plants themselves might be taking away from the tree in some way. I think you're right that I can afford to add back some soil, and hopefully find an appropriate ground cover that my dog's activity won't totally destroy. I need something low and dense. I'm thinking Irish moss.

Thanks again.

Unless you plant ivy which can climb up the tree and potentially damage it eventually, you don't have to worry too much about what the groundcover will do to the tree. Finding groundcover that will stand up to a dog is going to be a bit more challenging though!

Indeed! The dog won't be happy if I take away that spot. I might just go with ivy because it's so durable, and keep it from going up the tree. I just realised that Irish moss needs some sun, which this spot doesn't get.

Thanks again. MC

Be careful with ivy, it tends to be rather invasive and hard to get rid of, I can't count the number of hours I spent ripping out ivy at my old house, it was truly horrible! So make sure you really want it before you plant it.

GOod advice, I know. But it's a very small area and I feel confident I can keep it from off the tree and out of the adjacent garden. I'll only have a perimeter of about 12-15 feet to trim. I am pretty certain it's the only thing that has a chance of standing up to the dog. Who knows? It might not even take. I just took my "puppy" to the vet today (she'll be 1 in about 2 weeks) and she weighs 82 lbs!! No wonder my grass is an absolute mess. But my dog is a joy, so it's worth it. (She does, however, know to stay out of my flower gardens. :-)